As the track density on magnetic tape products continues to increase, the track placement has become more sensitive to minor tolerances and dimensions in the head, servo, format, etc. One factor of particular concern is the Tape Dimensional Stability (TDS), which is a measure of positional stability of magnetic data tracks relative to each other. The environmental effects of temperature, humidity, tension, aging, etc., on the magnetic tape are such that the relative position of the tracks can and do change during reading and writing to the point that read back signal quality is detrimentally affected, especially if there is too much relative movement between magnetic data tracks, possibly leading to read back failure.
Therefore, a solution that can address the shortcomings of current methodologies and systems to improve data storage rates and/or efficiency would be beneficial.